THE STOCK MARKET is a landscape turned red. The Dow has dropped by 471 points in two days. Russia's ruble can't find the bottom. The Japanese stock market is at a six-year low. Latin American markets are suddenly plummeting by double digits.

Never before has talk of a single global marketplace been so clearly demonstrated. Russia, with only 1 percent of the worldwide economy, has set off a stampede that reached thousands of miles and swayed billions of dollars. The reasons range from real to marginal: German banks have lost big on major investments in Russia, investments elsewhere in the world will be cashed out to pay for losses in Moscow, and general market nervousness over high prices had an excuse to act out.

The big answers may come this week. A Moscow summit between President Clinton and Boris Yeltsin can either tread water by producing no eventful news or be a showcase for future Russian reforms. Investors can stem the slide by stepping into the market again or dumping more shares. Calm could return to the marketplace, or another cataclysm in Asia, Europe or Latin America could unhinge the world of money trading.

The stock market drop argues, once again, for economic housecleaning in such major trouble-spots as Japan and Russia. Neither country is making progress to reform a hidebound banking system. The temptation is to lean back on centralized planning to control events, but such a move would be a return to the failed past.

For American investors, the market is almost too slick for its own good. In good times, index funds -- made up of blue-ribbon stocks that continually rose over the past two years -- meant ever-higher profits. But on recent down days, these big-dog stocks showed they were fallible, scaring true-believers into selling. In addition, big company performance has generally masked the sagging performance of the majority of stocks.

There's still a debate on the stock exchange floor. Is this a "Goldilocks" economy that is not too hot and not too cold, but just about right? Or is it an Oscar Wilde market, where investors know the price of everything and the value of nothing, making them too ready to buy overpriced issues?

There really isn't any sideline where people can watch this debate. Americans in growing numbers play the market every day through pension funds, retirement accounts or cookie jar investments. Everyone is on their own to make decisions in a suddenly up-and-down world.